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iPhoto to Lightroom

The Good and the Bad

Good

iPhoto is handy for:

• Quick and simple edits.

• E-mailing.

• Using other tools in iLife.

• Moving pictures to your iPod and iPad.

Bad

iPhoto is clumsy when you're using Lightroom.

iPhoto and Lightroom are databases.

They can't "talk" to each together.

Therefore, there's no easy way to use both.

There are two scenarios below.

Read about them and choose the one that fits your needs.

Caution

Before you perform an action on thousands of files, experiment with just a few.

Stop Using iPhoto

The following was adapted from Moving Your Images From iPhoto to Lightroom by Gene McCullagh.

You'll import all of your photographs from iPhoto to Lightroom, and won't use iPhoto thereafter.

Import the Masters & Modified Folders

iPhoto keeps your original files in a folder called Masters.

You'll import the files from the Masters folder.

When you edit a file in iPhoto, the edited version is saved to a folder called Modified.

If you want to keep the edited versions, you'll import them from the Modified folder.

Import Events

The following doesn't apply to events that were made automatically by iPhoto when you imported photographs.

The events discussed below are those created by you.

Let's say you created an event in iPhoto called Galapagos.

The Galapagos files are still in the Masters and Modified folders.

The Galapagos event is virtual.

It exists only in the iPhoto database.

There's no folder called Galapagos.

So, if you want to preserve the Galapagos event, you'll export it from iPhoto to your Desktop.

From the Desktop, you'll import the album into Lightroom.

Does the Metadata Transfer, Too?

EXIF, Yes

The EXIF metadata (date, time, exposure, etc.) will accompany your iPhoto files on their trip to Lightroom.

That's because EXIF metadata is part of the JPEG file.

IPTC, No

IPTC metadata (keywords, tags, captions, etc.) won't transfer because iPhoto stores this IPTC metadata separate from the JPEG file.

Import #1: Files from the Masters Folder

Do the following.

1) Go to Finder > MacIntoshHD > Users > Pictures > iPhoto Library.

Clicking iPhoto Library will simply open iPhoto.

Instead . . .

2) Right click the iPhoto Library.

Can't right click with your mouse?

Press and hold Ctrl, and click your mouse button.

3) Click Show Package Contents.

You're in the iPhoto Library.

The important folders are Masters and Modified, mentioned above.

The files in these folders are arranged as follows.

Year > Month/Day/Year

4) Right click on the Masters folder, and click Make Alias.

An alias is a shortcut to something, in this case, the Masters folder.

5) Drag the Masters alias to your Desktop.

6) Open Lightroom and click Import in the lower-left corner.

7) On the left side of the Import window, hunt for the Masters alias that's located under Desktop.

You have to hunt for the Masters alias because there are no files in the alias.

Do the following.

a) In the top-left corner, click Select a source.

b) Click Other Destination.

c) Navigate to the Desktop and click the Masters alias.

Lightroom now knows where to get the files.

8) Lightroom now needs to know whether to copy or move the files.

At the top of the Import window, select Copy.

The files will be copied to a new location, and will be added to your Lightroom catalog.

If you were to select Add, Lightroom wouldn't be able to get to the files hidden in the iPhoto Library.

If you were to select Move, iPhoto would be emptied of its files.

You want to keep iPhoto as it is for a while.

So, again, select Copy.

9) By default, Lightroom will copy the files to a folder called Masters in Pictures.

You may want to import the files into a folder called iPhoto, for example.

10) Click Import in the lower-right corner.

Import #2: Files from the Modified Folder

Repeat the above steps, but with the Modified folder instead of the masters folder.

Export Your Events

As mentioned, the following doesn't apply to events that were made automatically by iPhoto when you imported photographs.

The events discussed below are those created by you.

As described, the events in iPhoto are virtual.

There's no folder in the iPhoto library full of the photographs that are in the event that you created.

Do the following.

Let's say to created an event called Granny Drinks a Smoothie.

In iPhoto

1) Create a folder in Pictures called iPhoto Events.

Again, this for events that you created, not the events that iPhoto created when you downloaded photographs.

2) Open the event that you created, Granny Drinks a Smoothie.

3) Create a folder in the iPhoto Events folder called Granny Drinks a Smoothie

4) Export the photographs in the event to the Granny-Drinks-a-Smoothie folder.

In Lightroom

5) Import the Granny-Drinks-a-Smoothie folder into Lightroom.

6) Create a collection with the same name as the event.

Note

The files will be duplicated.

The files will be located in the Masters and Modified folders, as well as in the Granny-Drinks-a-Smoothie folder.

Keep Using iPhoto

Use this method if you want to import some of your photographs from iPhoto to Lightroom.

Do the following.

1) In iPhoto, export the photographs to your Desktop.

2) In Lightroom, import the photographs.

3) If you want to return the edited photographs to iPhoto, rename the files.

Append -LR-edited to the file names.

4) In Lightroom, export the photographs to your Desktop.

5) In iPhoto, import the photographs from the Desktop.

The edited photographs will appear in an Event with today's date.

The original photographs are in an older event.

You can merge the edited photographs with the original photographs, if you wish.

Drag the new Event onto the Event in which the original photographs are located, to merge the two.

Go to View > Sort Photos > By Title.

The masters and edited photographs will be side-by-side.